Football player "highlight" technique

hjk4300 wrote on 3/19/2010, 11:17 PM
Hi,

I've seen football productions that "highight" an individual player to call attention to his position on the field, and actions in a given play. I'm sorry I don't know to explain this better, but the technique allows a coach, scout, or recruiter to find and focus on just the one player.

Sometimes the technique just highlights the player while the film is paused, before a play starts; I also think I've seen a player remain highlighted for the duration of a play. The technique is used in long-range shots that show all or at least most of players at once.

I'm Clueless as to how this is done. If anyone knows, and thinks its compatible with Vegas, please let me know!

Thanks - Herm K

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 3/20/2010, 12:59 AM
The basic technique is to duplicate the clip to an adjacent track.

Then either brighten the bottom event, or darken the top one.

From there it's just a matter of using a masking tool such as Cookie Cutter, to "make a hole" in the top event so that the brighter version below shows through.

A vertical elipse shape will usually do a fair job, then it's simply a matter of using keyframes to follow the featured player around, and re-sizing the "hole" if, for instance, there's a wide shot where the elipse needs to be made smaller to stay with the player.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/20/2010, 6:08 AM
You can do this simply with a Media Generator Gradient and not have to duplicate the track. Create an Elliptical Gradient with a clear center, (optional) yellow ring, and transparent gray outer fill (hint: start with the Elliptical Ring preset and go from there). Then just use it above any video to highlight someone. Use keyframes to move with them as Peter said.

I find it best to highlight the player for the first few seconds just to focus the coaches eyes and then remove it. Leaving it on for the whole play is actually insulting to the coach because it implies that they are incapable of following a player once pointed out. Just point them out and be done with it.

~jr
Jay_Mitchell wrote on 4/2/2010, 10:09 AM
Sometimes a simple arrow highlight works well. Here is a recent highlight video that made for a High School Football Player that the college coaches and recruiting scouts really liked watching.

And, it was shot with the amazing Sanyo VPC-FH1 Camcorder at 1280x720p 30fps, converted with Cineform NeoScene and editied in Vegas 9c on a laptop. You can watch in HD by selecting it on the YouTube player bar.



Jay Mitchell
backlit wrote on 4/2/2010, 12:48 PM
Yet another way would be to use the light rays plugin to make a spotlight. Then place keyframes to move it about or change its size. I suggest starting with the "Spotlight with Feather" preset and then adjust spot to your liking.

Enjoy,
David